Cenk Uygur: 'It Would Be Great To Take The Young Turks To The UK'

Cenk Uygur is an unlikely global celebrity. Born in Turkey and raised in the US, the trained lawyer started broadcasting a satellite radio talk show called The Young Turks in 2002. By 2005, the format had developed into an online broadcast distributed on YouTube, from where it has grown to become one of the best known and most viewed offerings on the web. It currently boasts around 30 million views each month, and has received more than 500 million views in total since launch.

"I knew we had a following," Uygur tells The Huffington Post UK, "when I got off the underground in London and heard someone shout 'Cenk - what are you doing here?' I'd only been in the country about an hour."

Yet notoriety is something the 41-year-old has increasingly had to deal with. Last year, the success of Uygur's online show caught the attention of cable news channel MSNBC, who offered the LA resident a contract to host their coveted 6pm slot. He accepted, though it proved only a brief association. After six months, Uygur was offered a lower profile time, which he refused, having been told his tone was not to the liking of executives in Washington.

Uygur's combative style, developed for the web generation, apparently didn't sit well with the cable news audience. So, he moved back to TYT (though he never actually left) and is now looking to expand.

"The UK is our third largest territory behind the US and Canada," he says. "It would be great to take the show there. Maybe in the future we can expand to set up Young Turks in different regions, and the UK would definitely be a prime contender to do that. Because of the show's global popularity, we are definitely looking to give it more of an international feel."

Using YouTube, alongside live web streaming, has given Uygur and his fellow Turks an almost global reach.

"That's the great thing about being online," he says. "If you look at shows like John Stewart and The Colbert Report, they're restricted to a channel. We are not."

Every day, more than a million people visit the TYT channel on YouTube, for their daily fix of progressive political discourse, entrenching Cenk as a fixture in the US media landscape. And, in a country where newscasters wear their political leanings like an identity badge, Uygur is unashamedly to the left of the divide.

"I started The Young Turks as there needed to be a push back against Fox News and the other news sources, which only pushed the agenda of big corporations," he says. "We didn't sit down and have a meeting in which we determined the editorial or political line. We just try and present the news without all the bulls*it. The show is just a reflection of the people that make it."

For Uygur, John Stewart, The Colbert Report, Air America on the radio, plus MSNBC's increasingly progressive stance is all part of the same push back. "It is a fight to balance out the news so Americans aren't just told one side of the story," he says.

I enquire if, in the interest of balance, he ever invites conservatives on the show?

"We try and get conservatives on the show all the time," he snaps back. "It's great when they come on. I have nothing against conservative principles, however what's preached by people like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News has absolutely nothing to do with conservatism."

"You only have to look at subsidies for oil companies," he continues, now in full flow. "These subsidies are sold by the right-wing media as an issue that fits well with conservative principles. Can there be anything less conservative than subsidies for oil companies? People like Limbaugh or companies like Fox News are paid by the corporations to push their agenda. They call it conservatism, but it's just corporate propaganda."

It's the kind of vitriol that has won the Uygur fan and foe alike. It is also indicative of America's increasingly polarised media, much of which has come to resemble two armed camps rather than members of the same profession.

It's a situation not only certain to continue through to the 2012 election, but could well have a bearing on its outcome.

"Obama is in so much trouble right now," says Uygur. "He's got nine per cent unemployment... and that nine per cent is not going down anytime soon. Then there's the downgrade of the country's credit rating, following the ridiculous situation with the debt ceiling."

In recent months, the TYT host has become increasingly critical of Obama and the current administration.

"If he was doing the right things, it wouldn't be so bad," he says, "but the President simply isn't looking at the type of policies that will get the country out of its current mess. It"s just more tax cuts for the rich. I can honestly see Obama's popularity figures dropping into the 30s."

So you think Obama will lose, I ask?

"No - I'm not saying he will lose. The Republican Party could do him a favour and nominate some lunatic. That would give him a chance."

The nomination process for the Republican Party, although underway, is far from yielding a definite candidate, with a recent CNN poll putting Ricky Perry, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann as the leading candidates in that order, with Sarah Palin yet to declare.

"People are actually talking about Michelle Bachmann as a real candidate for the Republican nomination," he says with exasperation. "Come on... Admittedly, her figures are good right now, but she is simply not a serious candidate. Mitt Romney is more likely as is Rick Perry. I'm surprised that Mike Huckabee has ruled himself out of the race. He would mobilise the evangelical vote and could portray himself as a populist. There's a mood in the country right now for a populist candidate. I'm amazed he hasn't jumped back in."

"The run up to the election is going to be vicious," he continues, barely drawing breath. "The Republicans have already started. The leak about Michelle Bachmann taking prescription drugs was unbelievable. I'm the last person who wants to see Bachmann in the White House, but for Republicans to leak the migraine information, questioning not only her mental health but also inferring that she was addicted to prescription drugs was unforgivable. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be that kind of election."

Whatever happens, The Young Turks will no doubt be covering it, broadcasting their daily mix of the irreverent, the serious and the funny from their poky studio in downtown LA.

"We'd like to expand as the set is looking a bit cramped," he says. "The set has been a good home as it's very intimate but we're in the process of moving very soon. Actually, I can't confirm that right now... but we are."